Seasonal
Swamp Witch and Witchmusk: Halloween names against the notes
Six indie scents with gothic titles, read line by line against the notes their makers list, plus the plain-named ones that quietly carry the smoke.
Undernotes4 min read
Undernotes
The Journal
21 piecesMon / Wed / FriRSS
Reading about independent perfume: what the season smells like, who is making what, and how one material behaves in a hundred different hands.
Seasonal. What the season actually smells like, and who bottles it.
Seasonal
Pumpkin without the pie: squash and smoke in the oil houses
Three autumn releases read side by side on their listed notes: a pumpkin patch with dirt and mushroom in it, a cream-and-incense oil, and a spiced…
5 min read
Seasonal
The autumn equinox switch: from citrus to amber
The library holds 153 citrus fragrances and 95 aquatic ones against 199 built on amber, and three small houses show how that crossover is made note by…
4 min read
Seasonal
Early autumn in the oil houses is roasted, not sweet
The equinox lands on 22 September, and three American oil houses treat the season as damp earth, resin and smoke, with sugar used only as seasoning.
4 min read
About the journal
Three mornings a week the journal publishes one piece about independent perfume, drawn from the same catalogue as the rest of the site: 21 articles so far, every one of them linking back to the houses and the notes it talks about. It is published by Undernotes; nothing in it is sponsored, and no link is an affiliate link.